Best music books for Christmas: Metro gift guide

Metro takes a look at some of the best books for music enthusiasts this Christmas, ranging from Simon Reynold’s Retromania to 33 Revolutions Per Minute by Dorian Lynskey.

Retromania looks back at the iconic figures and bygone eras in original music (Picture: Faber)

The big music book of 2011 was Simon Reynoldsâs Retromania (Faber, Â£17.99). In it, the Rip It Up And Start Again author argues thereâs a worrying lack of ripping up and starting again in modern musical culture.

Far from a middle-aged music journo lamenting that they donât make âem like they used to, Retromania is a heartfelt attempt to understand how the establishment-bothering iconoclasm of rockânâroll, punk, rave et al feels largely absent in a modern world where the musical wealth of the past is a couple of clicks away and icons from bygone eras are venerated like never before.

One might ask how much this matters so long as good music is still being made â which it is â but this is an intelligent, perceptive, wide-ranging book that speaks a lot of truth.

If you do think retromania is a marvellous thing, then Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaumâs I Want My MTV (Dutton Books, Â£19.16) is for you.

I Want My MTV goes on a openly fun ride into the music business (Picture: Dutton Books)

A fun, flip oral history of MTV thatâs heavy on the ludicrous excess and low on the high-minded cultural analysis, itâs one of this yearâs more nakedly entertaining music books.

Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh may not be a household name but her surreal, mordantly funny memoir, Paradoxical Undressing (Atlantic Books, Â£8.99), is worthy of anyoneâs time.

Detailing both the adventures of the band she formed as a schoolgirl as well as her struggles with bipolar disorder, itâs a wry, weird and well-written account of a very strange life.

Another oddball musical biography comes in the shape of Do It For Your Mum (Rough Trade Books, £15. http://www.doitforyourmum.com) by Roy Wilkinson, erstwhile manager and sibling to two members of cult-ish indie band British Sea Power.

Paradoxical Undressing is a biography submerged in the depression and adventures of Throwing Muses singer Kristin Hersh (Picture: Atlantic Books)

A bittersweet document of the first ten years of the bandâs career, it has all the expected lively anecdotes from the road but the real interest lies within family relationships: Wilkinsonâs mounting self-doubt over the bandâs failure to hit the big time, and the siblingsâ octogenarian fatherâs belated, bizarre obsession with alt-rock.

Finally, Dorian Lynskeyâs 33 Revolutions Per Minute (Faber & Faber, £17.99) is a meticulously researched history of the protest song in Western popular music.

Itâs a subject that sometimes feels like it has been written about to death but Lynskey is a fine writer, and this is as close to a definitive book on the subject as any.

Do It For Your Mum is a bittersweet document of indie band British Sea Power’s first ten years (Picture: Rough Trade Books)

33 Revolutions Per Minute finely discusses the subject of revolution and protest songs from musicians against the system (Picture: Faber & Faber)